The shift from good, honest thrift, good will, charity, second-hand and dead-stock clothing into the catch-all “vintage” has to be one of the most depressing facets of contemporary style.
//THE LOOK’s top six from LA//
Formerly prime sources in London are too self-conscious while New York stores have become pretentious, overpriced and overly reverential.
$1500 for some nasty Rive Gauche or an Abigail’s Party Ossie Clark For Radley dress?
We don’t think so.
It’s heartening to report that a few stores in Los Angeles, at least, have kept the faith, and to celebrate the publication of JB Taylor’s excellent new book Vintage LA THE LOOK today digs out half a dozen of our top purchases from second-hand and thrift stores there.
1. 60s cardigan. Purchased 1991. Price: $25 from American Rag Cie, 150 S. La Brea, LA CA 90036.
2. 40s Georgette printed dress. Purchased 2008. Price: $30 from Ozzie Dots 4637 Hollywood Blvd LA CA 90027.
3. 60s shoes. Purchased: 1995. Price: $45 from Re-Mix 7065 1/2, Beverly Blvd, LA CA 90036.
4. Brown 60s quilted leather jacket. Purchased: 2002. Price: $65 from Ozzie Dots.
5. 70s scarf. Purchased 2008. Price: $10 from Aardvark’s, 85 Market Street, LA CA 90291.
These intriguing images stem from the encounter between David Bowie and William Burroughs at Bowie’s Chelsea pad on Feb 28 1974, as recorded by Craig Copetas in Rolling Stone a couple of months later.
//Clockwork Orange tee on display. Pic: Terry O’Neill//
The shots capture the pair in transition; Bowie is moving onto the Burroughs-influenced dystopian Diamond Dogs, while ole Bill is about to slip London for his bunker in NYC.
//Bowie covers up. Pic: Terry O’Neill//
They evidently got on like a house on fire, overlooked apparently by a giant Duggie Fields painting (described as “midway between Salvador Dali and Norman Rockwell”) hung over a plastic sofa. Burroughs is, as ever, menacingly tailored, while the ever-changing Bowie has ditched the alien couture of Ziggy/Aladdin Sane for a tougher street-wise image.
The tiny leather bomber is pretty similar in shape to the silver PVC jacket Bowie paired with straight-legged rolled up jeans in the clip for Jean Genie a few months earlier (which starred the wonderful and sadly late Cyrinda Foxe).
According to Copetas, Bowie was wearing three-tone NASA jodhpurs (whatever they may be) for the Burroughs encounter.
//Burroughs on cut-ups and his London years//
When asked about his clothing designs, Bowie told Burroughs: “I have to take total control myself. I can’t let anybody else do anything, for I find that I can do things better for me. I don’t want to get other people playing with what they think that I’m trying to do.”
Bowie’s antennae are attuned to the coming punk storm. Just months ahead of stirrings on both sides of the Atlantic - CBGB is about to start booking the first NY punk bands while Malcolm McLaren is contemplating the transformation of 430 Kings Road into SEX - Bowie says: ”Now we have people who are making it happen on a level faster than ever. They’re into groups like Alice Cooper, the New York Dolls and Iggy Pop, and are denying totally and irrevocably the existence of people who are into The Stones and The Beatles.”
When Bowie says he plans to lobby for Warhol films to appear on British television, Burroughs asks if the two had ever met.
//Bowie meets Andy Warhol, The Factory, September 14, 1971//
“I tried to make small talk with him, and it wasn’t getting anywhere. But then he saw my shoes,” says Bowie. “I was wearing a pair of gold-and-yellow shoes, and he says, ‘I adore those shoes, tell me where you got those shoes.’ He then started a whole rap about shoe design and that broke the ice. My yellow shoes broke the ice with Andy Warhol.”
For the full transcript of this fascinating exchange click here.
The Look Presents ripped it up in fine style at historic London nightspot Tramp the other night for the press launch of our new menswear collection with Antony Price: Priceless.
//Antony, Katie Hudson and Bryan Ferry. Pic: Karolina Krasuska//
Hosted by our retail partner Topman, the event was attended by Antony’s long time collaborator Bryan Ferry, columnist Nicky Haslam, designer Pam Hogg, style guru and social commentator Peter York, and uber-stylist and Kylie collaborator William Baker, all of whom appear in THE LOOK.
//Pippa Brooks, Jen Ross and Pam Hogg. Pic: Karolina Krasuska//
//Nathaniel Lee Jones and Max Karie. Pic: Caz Facey//
//Paul Gorman and Peter York. Pic: Karolina Krasuska//
Have a sticky beak at the rest of the photos here.
The Look Presents Priceless will be available online and in-store in the UK in October and in Topman’s hotly-awaited new store in New York from November.
Tonight (July 9) sees the London launch of The Look Presents’ new suit collection Priceless.
Created by couturier to rock royalty Antony Price with The Look Presents, Priceless (available from Topman later this year) explores Antony’s sexy, strong and sensual heritage with a capsule collection of suits, coats, ties and shirts.
//Pic: Amanda De Cadenet//
Here for you our Look-bloggers is not only a sneak peek at Amanda De Cadanet’s great photo-shoot but also an exclusive extract from Paul Gorman’s introduction to the Priceless look book:
Like the wildfowl he keeps, Antony Price is a rare bird indeed.
One of Britain’s most important designers, Antony effortlessly evokes sensuality and strength in the clothes he creates. Yet he is also a master craftsman whose understanding that form follows function has transformed fashion for all time.
Antony can turn his hand to building a dry-stone wall, and his tailoring is the result of a similar process of meticulous construction, used to underpin wearability and visual allure.
“I decided very early on that I wanted to make other people look good,’ he revealed to me in a St Petersburg hotel when I interviewed him for my book The Look: Adventures In Rock & Pop Fashion.
It is extremely exciting to announce that this desire is now made manifest in Priceless, which is imbued with timeless qualities and replete with 21st Century values, enabling a fresh generation to embrace the glamour, sexuality and, dammit, sheer class delivered by the rare gift that is Antony Price.
Madame Miaow has thrown down the challenge by tagging THE LOOK among seven blogs choosing their current seven favourite songs.
The rules are set by Simon Reynolds: “List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they’re listening to.”
Well hey-ho it’s summer now, so here goes - at the end you’ll find the seven sites we are tagging. Click on the song titles to hear samples/buy them.
A really heartfelt and typically unpindownable song from The Spotlight Kid. Take a look at The Captain on the cover; always slightly tilted and the very definition of a man: tough but gentle.
Boy/girl revolutionaries Ben and Lo chose their own adventure via candy and ice cream trucks, limited edition vinyl and collaborations with Kate Moross.
It may be the burgeoning Barney Bubbles beatification (and quite right too), but British music rarely sounds this damn funky. Uncle Ian, meanwhile, never looked two-bob, always pound-note.
With cameos from Nervous Stephen, Ima Doll, Peaches Geldof, Tim Noble & Sue Webster and Will Self. We can’t better Pippa Brooks’ summation of Nick Cave’s current look: “Receding and droopy moustache…..he’s HOT from where I’m sitting, not since his junkie days with black black quiff, white white skin and huge blue eyes has he looked so perfect. Or imperfect.”
These four amazing Wonder Workshop t-shirts - the first designs from our exciting new rock & roll fashion label The Look Presents - are now available in-store and online at Topman.
//Junior in The Look Presents Wonder Workshop Wild Thing tee 08//
To celebrate the forthcoming tour by the Sex Pistols (members Sid Vicious, Steve Jones and Glen Matlock have all sported the infamous Wild Thing shirt) The Look Presents is collaborating with premier fan-site God Save The Sex Pistols on a special COMPETITION with prizes including two Wild Things custom-made for us by Wonder Workshop designers John and Molly Dove.
To win, find the answer to this question somewhere in this post.
THE LOOK: How did Wonder Workshop start?
J&M: We were designing out of Paradise Garage (the legendary shop at 430 Kings Road which these days is Vivienne Westwood’s World’s End) and came up with a rock & roll jacket in black plastic and fake fur with a snarling leopard head on the back.
//Iggy Pop from the Raw Power sleeve by Mick Rock//
One day Iggy Pop wandered in and bought one. He and the Stooges were recording Raw Power in London with David Bowie. Iggy ended up wearing the jacket on the album sleeve. We only made five; there would have been more, but we used the remaining black plastic and green leopard-skin brocade to line the the shop changing room!
//Don’t blink! See Iggy’s jacket at 0.14//
THE LOOK: So where is Iggy Pop’s jacket now?
J&M: It cropped up only last year in the documentary The Treasures Of Long Gone John, about the guy who runs Sympathy For The Record Industry (the label which released the first records by the White Stripes, Courtney Love and Beck). We’re gonna talk to John soon about how he came by it; Iggy lost that jacket years ago in a drug deal!
THE LOOK: How did Wild Thing come about?
J&M: We had always liked the 60s song Wild Thing by The Troggs and made the shirt as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, who totally restyled it when he played the Monterey Pop Festival.
//Marc Bolan: The poster with T.Rex album The Slider //
Soon everyone was wearing Wild Thing: Marc Bolan and The Sweet, even actress Jacqueline Bisset in Francois Truffaut’s movie Day For Night. Sid Vicious was snapped in one when he was a 17-year-old called John Beverley on a photography course at Hackney College of Further Education.
//Sid Vicious (then John Beverley) in Wild Thing//
//Led Zep’s Robert Plant in Wonder Workshop’s Elvis print tee//
THE LOOK: How did the Wonder Workshop label develop?
J&M: We started out with tattoo designs - one of which is part of the new range - and evolved a tough rock & roll aesthetic, adding rhinestones. We were the first people to print on black t-shirts and it all came together with tributes to 50s icons and other designs which were worn by Paul McCartney when he was in Wings, Robert Plant from Led Zeppelin and Mick Jagger on the road with the Stones.
//Macca and Jagger in Wonder Workshop designs. Pic (right) by Neal Preston//
THE LOOK: What’s it been like revisiting these, er, wonderful Wonder Workshop designs?
J&M: Amazing. We have kept the original aesthetic but brought them into the 21st Century. The new shirts have that glam-punk-rock edge which attracted people in the first place; we’re looking forward to seeing them worn by a new generation of rockers and dandies!
Find out more about John and Molly’s adventures in rock and pop fashion here and read all about Wonder Workshop, Wild Thing, Paradise Garage and much much more in THE LOOK.
To buy The Look Presents Wonder Workshop t-shirts go here.
The failure earlier this month of the most recent attempt to breathe fresh life into Biba was not in the least surprising, blighted as it was by a series of poor market judgments but also weighed down by the history of the brand.
Potential customers were deterred by licensee Michael Pearce’s ill-conceived positioning of the original High Street fashion label in the luxury bracket, while the departure of head designer Bella Freud after just three seasons rang alarm bells throughout the industry.
//Freud talks about her Biba launch collection, A/W 06//
Such events, however, were overshadowed by the non-involvement of visionary founder Barbara Hulanicki, who maintained a dignified distance aside from commenting that she found the revival “painful”.
Biba expert Alwyn Turner has pointed out in The First Post that the crash of the original company in 1975 was seen as symptomatic of the general economic malaise in the dog days of Ted Heath’s Government, and that this latest collapse can be viewed in similar terms: “As belts are tightened, it is possibly time to say farewell to Biba. Finally.”
//One of 12 customised windows at Big Biba, 1973 //
Whatever, it’s all a long way from the joie de vivre expressed by the original Biba in all it’s incarnations. As detailed in Chapter 14 of THE LOOK, the boutique and label brought affordable high fashion to the High Street and came to symbolise not only Swinging London in the 60s but also the glam era of the early 70s, serving along the way such customers as Cathy McGowan, Twiggy, Marc Bolan and Roxy Music.
//Invite to early 90s retrospective//
Since then Hulanicki has engaged in all manner of creative endeavours, not least designing boutique hotels in association with Island Records boss Chris Blackwell. The opening shot of Mike Nichols’ movie The Birdcage has a sweeping view of four of them: the Leslie, the Cardozo, the Cavalier and the Netherlands.
//Look out for four Hulanicki-designed hotels in Palm Beach//
Among her many achievements, Hulanicki has also created a bar for Rolling Stone Ron Wood , illustrated a yoga book, and worked with Graham & Brown and Habitat on wallpaper ranges. Last year the eight-foot Great Dane she designed for Big Biba’s pet department even made an appearance in plant form at the Chelsea Flower Show.
//Hulanicki on Biba’s history and her approach to design//
Earlier this year the former fashion illustrator held an exhibition of her work at a London gallery and is currently working on a collection for the V&A. ”I don’t mind that people still want to reinvent Biba,” she said earlier this month. “I just try to grin and bear it.”
“The magic of stars is the work of fans,” wrote cultural commentators Fred and Judy Vermorel in their 1989 visual celebration Fandemonium, the follow-up to the duo’s extraordinary and too-long out-of-print Starlust: The Secret Life Of Fans.
//Pic: Hedi Slimane from Rock Diary//
And, in his photographic project Rock Diary, Hedi Slimane unstintingly captures the atmosphere of live performance, the personalities of some of our most celebrated musicians, and, significantly, the fervour of the fans.
//Pic: Hedi Slimane from Rock Diary//
With an exhibition at Musac in the north-western Spanish city of Leon, the first of the three volumes which make up the companion book is largely dedicated to photos of fans and the audiences at last year’s music festival Benicassim.
//Pic: Hedi Slimane from Rock Diary//
The ways in which fans provide the momentum for pop culture are detailed by contributor Jon Savage - who lines up in the third volume with fellow writers Alex Needham and Vince Aletti - while Slimane’s unwavering gaze and use of monochrome drains the imagery and highlights the drama, fireworks and glamour which occurs as much in the crowd as on-stage.
//Pic: Hedi Slimane from Rock Diary//
In contrast, the portraiture in the second volume provides an insight into the celebratory though sometimes exhausted on-the-road lifestyle of some of our favourite performers and personalities.
//Pic: Hedi Slimane from Rock Diary//
“Celebrity is the religion of our consumer culture,” wrote the Vermorels in 1985. “And fans are the mystical adepts of this religion who dramatize the moods, fantasies and expectations we all share.”
It’s great news that Starlust is apparently being readied for an update. More recently Fred Vermorel scripted and produced The Pornucopia Tapes, an unsettling inquiry into celebrity and fandom in the digital age, for the late Factory major-domo Tony Wilson.
The Rock Diary exhibition is at Musac until September 17 while the book is published by the museum in conjunction with JRP Ringier.
For an exclusive interview with Slimane about his life and career fusing fashion with music, design and photography read Chapter 31 of THE LOOK.
Last night’s event to celebrate the 30th anniversary of Contemporary Wardrobe proved a massive success.
//Hayley in Mary Quant and Robbie in Mark Powell sharkskin suit//
With an exhibition of rebel style from down the ages and young models decked out in fantastic items from the 15,000-strong archive, owner Roger K. Burton kept the house agog with his adventures in music and fashion.
//Alice in Woodstock print trouser suit and Ashley in three piece Miss Mouse//
//Neo-Edwardian and Teddy Boy style//
The catwalk show was MC-ed by CW associate Guy Sangster Adams using his mellifluous tones in full BBC announcer mode.
//Watching the show: Liz and Terry De Havilland, Marian Buckley, Gordon Richardson//
If Mick Jagger in Mr Fish represents the Sixties and Madonna in Gaultier the Nineties, then Lovefoxxx in a sequinned catsuit at Glastonbury 2007 is the Noughties’ live rock fashion moment.
As THE LOOK has revealed, the suit was created for the CSS singer by Kansas City designer Peggy Noland, who seems on the verge of spandexing the entire pop world. Today Peggy speaks to THE LOOK about the Peace Corps, her cheeseburger store and working with the Brazilian singer.
//Lovefoxxx at Glastonbury 2007 in that catsuit. Photo Steph Edwards//
Like fellow KC native Jeremy Scott, Peggy Noland’s clothes are all about rainbow colour, crazy patterns and twisted silhouettes. Wearing a Peggy Noland alphabet bodysuit or low-crotch leggings takes considerable chutzpah. Even so her line of clothes is becoming a stage-wear must-have: Lovefoxxx, the VIP Party Boys and long-time friends Tilly and the Wall and Verdera are all fans.
//Peggy Noland leggings at MadeMe//
Despite the fact Noland and Lovefoxx have yet to meet in person, Peggy describes the stagewear she designs for the Brazilian singer and other performers as a collaboration “from them telling me the arms need to be longer or shorter or coming up with things I could never dream of!” The glam sequined catsuit was designed specifically as a stage piece for Lovefoxxx. Many of the pieces Peggy has created for the CSS singer are low-maintenance, “perfect for touring because they are light and pack tight”.
//Ziggurat sequins: 70s glam in a contemporary form//
Peggy grew up in a convent in Kansas and extensive travel left the 24-year-old contemplating a life of religious service. Rejection by the Peace Corps left her doing “funny little things for money - including making weaves for Flavor Flav and Cow Pie Clocks - literally poop clocks!!” Her first collection came about because she was staying on sabbatical with a pattern-maker in India. On her return to KC she took night-courses and eventually opened her own store, Peggy Noland Kansas City, in 2007.
//Peggy Noland Kansas City. Cheeseburger interior by Cody Critcheloe//
The interior of the store is to change periodically, “to intentionally confuse and upset the typical idea of retail”, and it’s first incarnation was painted as a self portrait by Noland’s “boyfriend and cheeseburger”, Ssion mainman Cody Critcheloe.”I asked Cody to paint faux brick with withering vines and a cheeseburger is what I got!!!”
//Ssion at Peggy Noland Kansas City - part of the filming of the band’s new movie//
In the last year Peggy’s infamous catsuit was matched with YSL for the cover of Dazed and Confused, her collaboration with New York-based label MadeMe was a sell-out and her label is now available worldwide via hand-picked stockists in Moscow and Tokyo.
2008 is going to be even busier: a pop-up store in Tokyo, a visit to China and a new look for the KC shop: “Baby clothes for adults - the store will change into a nursery! The cash wrap will be in a crib!! Ha haa!!”
We can’t wait.
//Image from Peggy Noland’s online store// In the meantime we’ll content ourselves with Peggy’s pick of Kansas City music: ‘Big Baby’ Cody Critcheloe’s Ssion. Look out for a cameo from Peggy in the Critcheloe-directed Tilly And The Wall video for the deliciously infectious Beat Control:
Today THE LOOK proudly presents a world exclusive: an excerpt from Roger K. Burton’s new documentary Vive Le Punk, featuring the one and only time Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood ever talked publicly about their 12-year creative collaboration.
//Vive Le Punk: (c) Roger K.Burton 2008. No reproduction without permission//
This fascinating film is being shown as part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of Burton’s street-style archive Contemporary Wardrobe. THE LOOK is taking part in a special event on Thursday May 22; Burton will be in conversation with author Paul Gorman and there will be a fashion show and exhibition of rare items from the archive. Entry is free. Book tickets here.
For anyone interested in design, style and the creative process, Vive Le Punk is a must-see. Shot on a hand-held camera with variable lighting and sound which add to the voyeuristic atmosphere, the meeting took place the night before an exhibition of the same name opened back in 1993; Burton had invited McLaren and Westwood along to preview exhibits from their shops Let It Rock, Too Fast To Live Too Young To Die, SEX and Seditionaries.
By turn uncomfortable, charming and comic, the documentary presents two immensely erudite individuals who are often generous about each other’s respective roles in developing a series of designs which resonate to this day. Yet the tension is palpable. After all, they separated acrimoniously and publicly 10 years previously, and the exchanges sometimes verge on the Pinter-esque, with plenty of verbal sparring, pauses and interruptions.
And there is poignancy. Burton recounts how, when he called Westwood the following day to ask her to attend the opening night of the exhibition, she declined, telling him that the experience had made her finally realise she no longer loved McLaren.At one stage Westwood - looking magnificent, sipping red wine and smoking Gitanes in a long printed sheath dress and tweed jacket from her 1990 Portrait and 1992/3 Always On Camera collections - embarks on a monologue which takes in social responsibility regarding the ecology and the transformative powers of art and literature; here, in just a few minutes, the viewer is granted a snapshot of her current manifesto Active Resistance.
//Distressed Rock n Roll Lives, Too Fast To Live 1973. Pic: only-anarchists.com//
In the clip at the top of this story, they discuss the detourne-d tops created when 430 King’s Road was in its Too Fast To Live manifestation (around 18 months between 1972-74). McLaren explains how t-shirts printed for a rock & roll extravaganza in the summer of 1972 were deliberately distressed and deconstructed before zips and coloured cels of nudie shots were added.
//Lou Reed in distressed Vive Le Rock 1974. Pic: Mick Rock//
“It was a very painterly idea,” says McLaren, who also reveals that the final flourish was to take their son Joe Corre’s toy tractor, dip its wheels into the ink from a John Bull printing set and add skid-marks to give the impression that a motorcycle had run over it, “a bit like an action painting”.
The pair also reveal that they would spend days working on each shirt; a limited number were made and survive. In 1974 Lou Reed was photographed by Mick Rock in a distressed Vive Le Rock acquired from pioneering US McLaren & Westwood stockist Ian’s on St Mark’s Place on the Lower East Side.
For more on McLaren & Westwood’s extraordinarily fruitful design relationship, read chapters 19 to 22 of THE LOOK.
If you’re in London or thereabouts on May 22 please be our guests and come along to THE LOOK’s latest event: author Paul Gorman in conversation with fashion archivist, boutique designer, director and all-round rockin’ and rollin’ Renaissance man Roger K Burton.
Taking place at the wonderful Horse Hospital, kick-off is at 7.30pm, and the event will comprise:
• This month’s Contemporary Wardrobe exhibition featuring an unrivalled selection of original rebel style, including neo-Edwardian, Beatnik and Teddy boy and girl suits from the 50s, hippie, mod and rocker gear from the 60s and the finest collection of original punk clothes from the 70s - as picked out by Roger from his archive of 15,000 individual items.
• A fashion show - featuring real live young people! And be warned: they’ll be wearing some crazy and out-there fashions from down the years!
• A soundtrack of the greatest rebel sounds from down the years. Listen out for My Monster In Black Tights!!
//David Bowie in Contemporary Wardrobe in Jazzin’ For Blue Jean 1984//
• Roger and Paul talking through Roger’s adventures in rock and pop fashion, from Midlands Mod in the 60s, Acme Attractions, SEX, PX and Quadrophenia in the 70s, World’s End, Nostalgia Of Mud, videos and Absolute Beginners in the 80s, high end commercials, fashion shoots with the likes of Kate Moss, and more videos in the 90s, to the present day position of the Horse Hospital as London’s greatest centre for alternative and cutting edge arts.
//Westwood and McLaren (centre): In Burton’s must-see Vive Le Punk//
• We’ll also be discussing this month’s screening of Roger’s startling new movie Vive le Punk which features the only filmed interview with Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood about their respective roles in one of the key creative partnerships of the 20th Century.
It’s being shown repeatedly throughout May; we urge you to catch it while you can.Do come along on the 22 - it’s gonna be fun.
Already we know of many faces and movers and shakers from rock and pop fashion who are going to rock up, so, as Kenneth Williams might say, stop messing about and book now at: popculture@thehorsehospital.com or drop us a line here.
Today THE LOOK teases out the French roots of Kylie Minogue’s forthcoming KylieX2008 live extravaganza.
//Behind the scenes of the new tour//
The Australian star’s new tour fittingly opens in Paris on May 6, and will build on the Gallic sensibilities which have crept into her work, as pointed up by the sampling of the “woo-hoo-ha-hoo” hook from Serge Gainsbourg’s sublime Bonnie & Clyde on album track Sensitized.
//Serge and La BB as Bonnie & Clyde 1967//
Recently Minogue’s creative collaborator William Baker revealed that not only is Jean-Paul Gaultier responsible for the costumes for the forthcoming tour, but Pierre et Gilles are the stylists.
//Gaultier’s single How To Do That 1989//
Both appointments reflect Minogue and Baker’s abiding interest in fashion and music which broke ground in the 80s. As detailed in THE LOOK, Gaultier started his career as an 18-year-old assistant to Pierre Cardin in 1970 and later worked at Jacques Esterel and Jean Patou before debuting his own collection in 1976 with a range of dresses made from found objects.
//Gaultier tour costumes, Blonde Ambition, 1990//
Inspired by flea-markets - in particular London’s Portobello - and punk, Gaultier’s Dadaist show of 1983 marked the emergence of a startling talent, underpinned by funding from Far East manufacturer Kashiyama.Gaultier’s designs have been sported by many a pop star, including Grace Jones, Neneh Cherry and, of course, Madonna for her groundbreaking Blonde Ambition tour. He scored a minor hit in his own right in the late 80s and went on to firm up his musical associations by presenting the MTV Awards in Paris in 1995.
//Iggy Pop by Pierre et Gilles for Facade, 1977//
Meanwhile Pierre Commoy and Gilles Blanchard - who have also worked with Madonna and styled and photographed Gaultier’s parfumery campaigns - developed their hyper-kitsch aesthetic after meeting at a party in Paris thrown by Kenzo in 1976.
//Marc Almond’s A Lover Spurned, directed by Pierre et Gilles//
The French pair created treated photographic portraits of Andy Warhol, Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, Iggy Pop and Yves Saint Laurent for Alain Benoiste’s now defunct Facade before moving into record cover design with their sleeve for 1979 Euro-disco classic Diamonds For Breakfast by the amazing Amanda Lear.
//Amanda Lear performs Diamonds For Breakfast//
By the 80s they were collaborating with performers such as Etienne Daho and the singer/actress Lio. In 1985 they directed and styled their first video, Naufrage d’hiver, a single by Mikado.
//Pierre et Gilles’ first video clip 1985//
Since then the duo have exhibited all over the world and photographed everybody from Boy George to Nina Hagen and porn star Jeff Stryker.
//Kylie Minogue (c) Pierre et Gilles//
Kylie has worked with them before; a few years back they portrayed her as a nun on a rocking horse, with three kangaroos on her lap and the Southern Cross in the sky as nods to her nationality.
//Double Je: 1976-2007//
A monograph, Double Je: 1976-2007, was published last year and this spring Pierre et Gilles were awarded the Prix de Créateurs Sans Frontières.
KYLIEX2008 kicks off at Bercy Omnibus Stadium in Paris on May 8. William Baker has launched his own male underwear label, BBoy.
The work of artist Peter Saville has long lingered at the crossroads where art and design meet music and fashion.
//Saville: Iconic designer//
Not only responsible for some of the strongest artwork and most iconic graphics in popular music from his days as Factory Records in-house designer for Joy Division and New Order to working with the likes of Pulp and Suede, Saville has a fashion CV which includes launching SHOWstudio with Nick Knight, collaborating with Yohji Yamamoto in the 80s and also John Galliano at Dior in the 90s (where he was tipped to become creative director before famously falling out with LVMH’s Bernard Arnault).
In conversation with THE LOOK, Saville reveals how the juxtapositions presented by now-largely forgotten London clothing store Crolla were a key inspiration for one of his most famous sleeves.
//Power Corruption and Lies 1983//
Saville says of New Order’s Power, Corruption and Lies - which incorporates the 1890 still-life A Basket Of Roses by Henri Fantin-Latour with high-tech colour coding and a label based on a Diatronic typesetting disc: ”I was given the confidence to put that together by what Scott Crolla and Georgina Godley were doing with their store at 35 Dover Street.”
//The album included an insert of the National Gallery postcard which inspired the cover//
Then husband and wife, Crolla and Godley opened their shop in London’s Mayfair in 1981, selling luxurious and colourful prints ands fabrics such as tapestries, brocades and damasks for waistcoats, pyjamas, dressing gowns, slippers and Nehru-jacketed suits.
//Crolla in The Face December 1982. Photo: Davies/Starr//
“The Crolla interior contrasted and juxtaposed Sanderson fabric with things like a shelving unit by Le Corbusier,” recalls Saville. “When I came across the Fantin-Latour on a postcard at the National Gallery I knew it was OK to like it, because Scott and Georgina’s use of reference points had taught me not to feel embarrassed by my appreciation of such art. In a way it was a contemporary means of understanding flower power.”
Saville describes Crolla as “a laboratory of post-modernist ideas, truly the first post-modern clothing shop. They weren’t presenting English eccentricism in an irritating or twee way. I read Crolla as a juxtaposition of opulence of imagery up against the Corb shelving unit or steel and glass fittings. The shop seemed to me to embody the post-modern principle: that there is the past, the present and the possible.”
//Georgina Godley white 80s dress//
By the mid-80s Godley had formed her own label and was pursuing her line in structured, contour-revealing womenswear while Crolla kept the shop until 1991 before moving on to Italian knitwear company Callaghan and collaborating with Vivienne Tam, most recently on her New York outlet in Soho’s Mercer Street.
Godley has acted as a consultant to Missoni, Paul Smith and Jasper Conran (she is the partner of his brother, Sebastian, who designed t-shirts for The Clash in their early days) and latterly developed her interest in ceramics as head of home accessories and style director at Habitat and creative director at Wedgwood.
In June Zune is producing a limited edition digital media player featuring his design for Unknown Pleasures to commemorate the release of Joy Division The Documentary, which will be pre-loaded onto the custom player.
In May THE LOOK is taking part in Be Reasonable Demand The Impossible! - Contemporary Wardrobe’s 30th anniversary celebration of events which includes the world premiere of the only known footage of designers Malcolm McLaren and Vivienne Westwood discussing their ground-breaking work together.
//Image from Peggy Noland’s 
